Review: 'The Grinch' Works Better As A Drama Than A Comedy

Universal/Comcast Corp. will open The Grinch on Thursday night. The newest Illumination toon is an adaptation of Dr. Suess’s short-story How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which was turned into a beloved TV special in 1966 and a smash hit live-action movie in 2000. That Ron Howard-directed biggie earned $260m domestic but "just" $345m worldwide, and Universal would prefer to somewhat alter that domestic/overseas split.

However, save for a few exceptions here (Home Alone 2) and there (A Christmas Carol), most Christmas movies make most of their money in North America. So that will be something to watch, even if the toon cost around half of the live-action film's $123m budget. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch (again ditching his natural accent) as the title character and is narrated by Pharrell Williams.

It co-stars Cameron Seely, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson and Angela Lansbury. Directed by Scott Mosier and Yarrow Cheney and written by Michael LeSieur and Tommy Swerdlow, it features a musical score courtesy of Danny Elfman.

The Review:

Illumination and Universal’s The Grinch is exactly what it promises. It is an 80-minute animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s beloved short story, retold in feature-length animated form. It is gorgeously animated and noticeably less frantic (or willfully obnoxious) than the 2000 live-action flick, but it doesn’t really have a reason to exist beyond IP value. It’s harmless and occasionally engaging, but it mostly fails to justify itself as a stand-alone entertainment. It will amuse the kids, but it feels both cynical and indifferent. It is the very definition of “It’s fine, I guess…”

It lovely from head-to-toe, with rich and vibrant colors and a lush visual sensibility that approximates an old-school 2D animated feature within the realm of modern-day computer animation. And it is well-acted, with Benedict Cumberbatch flirting with giving a real dramatic performance and the supporting cast (Rashida Jones as an overworked widowed mother, Cameron Seely as Cindy Lou and Keenan Thompson as a relentlessly cheerful neighbor) offering tonally-appropriate vocal turns. I appreciated that the citizens of Whoville were mostly good people, and that Grinch’s issues were based in his own personal trauma.

The Grinch works better as a drama than a comedy. The first act climaxes with a quick reveal of just what torments this particular Grinch (he grew up alone in an orphanage sans conventional Christmas niceties), and it is enough to create sympathy for this self-imposed outcast. He feels abandoned as a child and now sees himself fit to live alone as an adult, both because he deems himself unworthy of love and unwilling to risk further rejection. Of course, it helps that he doesn’t do anything particularly egregious, as befits the kid-friendly story.

This 86-minute (counting credits) feature can’t help but feel padded in compared to the 69-page storybook or the 23-minute Chuck Jones/Ted Geisel TV special. However, this adaptation doesn’t amp up the farce and doesn’t replicate the ridiculously convoluted origin story (and present-day trigger) from the Ron Howard live-action film. It helps that the movie splits between the Grinch’s drama and Cindy Lou’s schemes to catch Santa Claus in order to request something a bit more personal than a new toy. The notion that these plans will inevitably collide provides a token amount of suspense.

The Grinch plays out mostly by the book, literally so. It is aggressively fine, entirely inoffensive and surface-level entertaining for the pint-sized demographics. My 11-year old enjoyed it well enough, even if neither of us laughed all that much. If I’m somewhat of a grinch about it that’s partially because it’s a “Christmas is about more than consumerism” encased in a movie that only exists due to IP exploitation. You can say that about any adaptation (it’s not like the world needs Ant-Man and the Wasp), but Illumination doesn’t need to rely on IP as a crutch.

Illumination has built its animation empire mostly from outright original animated content. Sure, I haven’t loved or even liked all of them (Despicable Me > Sing), but I’ve been happy to see them finding massive Pixar-level commercial success with relatively original animated comedies that have created new pop culture icons in a sea of recycled brands and revamped franchises. If I find myself bending over backward to be fair to Secret Life of Pets, then I in turn am perhaps less forgiving than I should be about a straight-up brand revamp that fails to justify itself.

I've studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for 28 years. I have extensively written about all of said subjects for the last ten years. My outlets for film criticism, box office commentary, and film-skewing s...